Ukraine Is Not Dead Yet
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2023
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It is often said that “Russia is a country with an unpredictable past.” Such distortions of history can lead to trouble, as the world witnessed last year when Vladimir Putin justified his invasion of Ukraine as an attempt to “denazify” the neighboring country—one with a Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust. As Megan Buskey writes in her new memoir, “Ukraine Is Not Dead Yet: A Family Story of Exile and Return”: “How could a country know itself unless it knew all the things it had been?”
Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sat down with Megan, a nonfiction writer and former Fulbright Fellow to Ukraine, who has studied and written about the country for two decades. They discussed her book, the use and abuse of history in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the role of family histories in countering those false narratives. They also talked about the best way to get a Polish archive to give you the documents you need.
Please note that this episode contains content that some people may find disturbing, including descriptions of sexual and other forms of violence. Listener discretion is advised.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
| 0:04.0 | To access an ad-free version of the LawFair podcast, |
| 0:08.0 | become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:14.0 | That's patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:18.0 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, |
| 0:22.0 | rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:29.0 | Every Ukrainian family has stories that kind of link up into all of these different pathways for Ukrainian identity, |
| 0:44.0 | however contested it might be. |
| 0:47.0 | And I think being able to provide an accounting of all of that in all of its complexity, |
| 0:53.0 | which is really what my book attempts to do, I hope will allow readers to kind of understand just how, again, how complicated what happened in World, you know, |
| 1:07.0 | during World War II, what happened in Ukraine, how complicated the Soviet Union was, and, you know, with that greater understanding, |
| 1:15.0 | could therefore be less susceptible to some of the propaganda, particularly coming out of the Kremlin that all Ukrainians are Nazis or whatever. |
| 1:25.0 | Obviously that's not true, but there's some history there. |
| 1:30.0 | There's a reason that that idea has gotten some traction, and that's also important to talk about. |
| 1:35.0 | I'm Tyler McBrion, managing editor of LawFair, and this is the LawFair podcast, June 2nd, 2023. |
| 1:43.0 | It's often said that Russia is a country with an unpredictable past. |
| 1:46.0 | Such distortions of history, though, can lead to trouble. |
| 1:49.0 | As the world witnessed last year when Vladimir Putin justified his invasion of Ukraine as an attempt to did not defy the neighboring country, |
| 1:55.0 | one with a Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust. |
| 1:58.0 | As Meghan Busky writes in her new memoir, Ukraine is not dead yet, a family story of exile and return. |
| 2:04.0 | Quote, how could a country know itself unless it knew all the things it had been? |
| 2:09.0 | I sat down with Meghan, a non-fiction writer and former Fulbright fellow in To Ukraine, who has studied and written about the country for two decades. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Lawfare Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Lawfare Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

